Joist hanger

ABSTRACT

An improved joist hanger for supporting steel, wooden or other joists from beams, such as I-beams, wherein a separate bracket is attached at a distance from the beam to each of a pair of conventional joists abutting opposite sides of a conventional girder or beam, and a strap with its ends fastened together links the two brackets over the beam so that both joists are supported vertically by the beam and continually pulled toward it to improve the load distribution of the joists as well as to generally improve the support characteristics of a floor or other structure comprised of such joists and beams.

United States Patent 72] Inventor George D. Ratliff, Jr.

2314 Forest Drive, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15235 [21] Appl. No. 837,263 [22] Filed June 27, 1969 [45] Patented Nov. 30, 1971 [54] 1015'! HANGER 5 Claims, 2 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl 287/20.94, 52/702 [51] Int. Cl Fl6b 9/00 [50] Field 01 Search 287/20.94, 20.95, 20.92 C. 20.92, 189.35, 189.36 A; 52/665, 702, 703, 712

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1.720.104 7/1929 Taylor et al 287/189.35 250,137 11/1881 Ellis 287/20.94

2,689,630 9/1954 Drury ..287/189.36 A X FOREIGN PATENTS 686,515 1953 Great Britain 287/20.94

Primary Examiner-Reinaldo P. Machado Assistant ExaminerWayne L. Shedd AtIorneyCushman, Darby & Cushman ABSTRACT: An improved joist hanger for supporting steel, wooden or otherjoists from beams, such as l-beams, wherein a separate bracket is attached at a distance from the beam to each of a pair of conventional joists abutting opposite sides of a conventional girder or beam. and a strap with its ends fastened together links the two brackets over the beam so that both joists are supported vertically by the beam and continually pulled toward it to improve the load distribution of the joists as well as to generally improve the support characteristics of a floor or other structure comprised of such joists and beams.

PATENTEDuuvsolsm 3.623755 MM,Q4 %AMM ATTORNINS JOIST HANGER BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention to a joist hanger for supporting wood, steel or other joists from girders, beams or the like.

In constructing buildings, it is conventional to form floors, ceilings and the like by first placing girders or beams extending parallel to each other and then to attach or hang wood or steel joists from such girders and at right angles to such girders or beams to form a grid upon which the floor, ceiling or other structure can then be placed. For example, when the ground floor of a conventional house is constructed, the usual practice is to simply place the floor joists atop and at substantially right angles to the basement girders. This procedure, while simple and structurally satisfactory, unfortunately causes the basement girders to protrude into the basement and to waste space which could otherwise be used. Further, such an arrangement does not provide optimum support for the floor joists and hence the floor and frequently results in a weight distribution pattern which requires more joists and hence greater expense than would be necessary if the joists were better supported.

To relieve the problem of wasted space by supporting the joists in the same plane as the girders, support brackets, commonly termed joist hangers, have in the past been used to hand the joists from the girders rather than simply placing the joists atop the girders. For example, the US. Pat. Nos. to Lally, l,742,2l0, Ham, 247,050 and Taylor et al., 1,720,l04 show typical prior art arrangements.

While these known supports do mount the joists and beams in the same plane, they do not improve the support characteristics of the joists and indeed may result in less satisfactory characteristics. The present invention relates to an improved joist hanger or support which not only enables to joists and beams to be mounted in the same plane but also results in much better support characteristics than previous devices. These improved characteristics reduce the number of joists required for any given application and accordingly reduce substantially the cost of building construction.

In the embodiment of the invention described below, these advantageous results are obtained by attaching a separate bracket or anchor to the lower portion of each of two joists which are caused to abut opposite sides of a girder at substantially the same location and form right angles with the girder. One or more straps are then used to link the two brackets over the girder so that both joists are not only vertically supported but are also pulled toward the girder resulting in the abovedescribed superior characteristics.

Other objects, aspects and purposes of the invention will become clear after reading the following detailed description of the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I shows an embodiment of the invention with two joist beams supported from a girder by the joist hanger of this invention.

FIG. 2 shows a view of a steel joist with a bracket mounted therein which can be attached to a strap and hung from a girder as illustrated in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Reference is now made to FIG. 1 which shows a joist hanger of this invention installed and supported by a girder 10 which is an l-beam of the type which is conventionally employed in building construction. In forming a floor, of course, several of these girders would be placed in parallel, with joists running between them to form a grid. It should be obvious that many other types of girders and similar supporting structures can be used in combination with the joist hanger of this invention to support abutting joists in the manner described below.

A plurality ofjoists II, 12, 13 and 14, which may be simply wooden joists, are shown supported from the single girder l and preferably these joists, together with the girder I0 and other girders, form a grid which supports a floor or ceiling. As can be seen in FIG. 1, the pair ofjoists l3 and 14 as well as the pair of joists I1 and I2 abut opposite sides of the girder I0 at roughly the same location, and these pairs of joists are each connected to each other and to the girder 10 as follows. Each of these joists ll, 12, 13 and 14 has had a square cut 15 made from its bottom end, as shown, so that it abuts solidly against the I-beam girder l0 and rests upon the lower portion of the I. Even further, an angled saw cut 16, slanting away from girder 10, is made in each of the joists 11, 12, I3 and 14 at a distance from the point at which the joists I4 abut the girder 10. The magnitude of this distance depends on the materials employed as well as the support characteristics desired.

After the angled saw cut 16 has been made in a joist, for example joist 14, a bracket or anchor I7 is fitted over the lower portion of the joist, for example, joist I4 as shown, and fastened to joist 14 by nails, barbs or any other suitable means so that the bracket 17 fits snugly against the sides of the joist 14 with the slots 18 in the bracket 17 matching the cut 16 in the joist 14. Small barbs on the bottom and sides of bracket 17, which can be easily hammered into the joist when the bracket is slipped onto the joist, are preferably employed to fasten the joist and bracket together. A similar bracket is then fitted and fastened in place on the joist abutting the opposite side of the girder, in this example joist l3, and a single steel strap or band 19 is threaded through the slots 18 and cuts 16 on one of the brackets 17, for example joist 14. This strap I9 is then passed over the girder l0 and likewise threaded through the slots 18 and cuts 16 of the other bracket 17, which in the example would be on joist 13. The two ends of the strap 19 are then joined over girder 10 by conventional strapping techniques, after tightening, and a seal 20 is applied so that joists 13 and 14 are supported vertically from girder I0 and in addition are pulled toward each other. Of course two straps which can be joined together on opposite sides of girder 10 can be alternately employed. When the strap 19 is tightened, a tab 21 on each side of bracket 17 which curves inward as shown, crushes the wood about the cuts 16 of joists l3 and I4 and produces rounded bearing surfaces for the steel strap I9.

This particular arrangement has been shown to have particular advantages and benefits which are not attainable with conventional joist hangers and discussed briefly above.

As should be apparent, this invention can be used not only with wooden joists as in the above example, but can be also advantageously employed with joists made of steel or any other material. For example, FIG. 3 shows a view of a steel joist 26 which is a conventional Z-shaped joist with a substantially square hole 38 cut in the lower portion as shown. The hole is used to support and position a bracket or saddle 30 in the same manner as the cuts 16 shown in FIG. I. To hang a joist, for example, joist 26 and bracket or saddle 30 is fitted in place on joist 26 as shown and the joist abutted against a girder which would be to the left in the drawing of FIG. 2. A similar joist is then abutted against the opposite side of the girder as in FIG. I and a bracket or saddle similarly fitted to it. Next, a steel strap or band (not shown) is passed through hole 38 and about the outside of one of the saddles 30 and then passed over the girder to be passed about the outside of the other saddle and then joined together as in FIG. 1. The braces or struts 31 which define the U-shaped path through which the band passes brace the saddle bearing surface 32 and also bear against and stiffen the web of the joist. The same advantageous results which come about for the use of this joist hanging arrangement with wood joists are discussed above are also obtained with steel and other joists, and the joist used for any application, of course, depends upon the structural and engineering requirements of the building.

The above embodiments of the invention are intended to be only exemplary and the scope of the invention is limited by the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A joist hanger for supporting two joists abutting opposite sides of a girder at approximately the same location on said girder and extending approximately at the right angles to said girder comprising:

a first bracket attached to one of said joists at a location at a 5 distance from said girder,

a second bracket attached to the other of said joists at a location at a distance from said girder and at least a single flexible strap with one end connected to and in direct contact with the other end to form a continuous loop for connecting said first bracket to said second bracket and over said girder so as to support said two joists in approximately the same plane as said girder and to pull said two joists toward said girder so as to abut said girder.

2. A hanger as in claim 1 wherein said single strap passing over said girder is adjustable in length.

3. A hanger as in claim 2 wherein said joists are wooden and have a saw cut at a distance from said girder slanting away from said girder and wherein said first and second brackets are U-shaped members fitted about said joists with closed slots for alignment with said saw cuts so that said strap passes through the saw cuts and slots of each said bracket and joist.

4. A hanger as in claim 3 wherein each said bracket includes tab means adjacent to said slot for crushing the wood of said saw cut when said strap is tightened to form a bearing surface for said strap.

5. A hanger as in claim 1 wherein each of said joists is metal and each includes a closed aperture at a distance from said girder so that said brackets fit in said apertures.

I I l 

1. A joist hanger for supporting two joists abutting opposite sides of a girder at approximately the same location on said girder and extending approximately at the right angles to said girder comprising: a first bracket attached to one of said joists at a location at a distance from said girder, a second bracket attached to the other of said joists at a location at a distance from said girder and at least a single flexible strap with one end connected to and in direct contact with the other end to form a continuous loop for connecting said first bracket to said second bracket and over said girder so as to support said two joists in approximately the same plane as said girder and to pull said two joists toward said girder so as to abut said girder.
 2. A hanger as in claim 1 wherein said single strap passing over said girder is adjustable in length.
 3. A hanger as in claim 2 wherein said joists are wooden and have a saw cut at a distance from said girder slanting away from said girder and wherein said first and second brackets are U-shaped members fitted about said joists with closed slots for alignment with said saw cuts so that said strap passes through the saw cuts and slots of each said bracket and joist.
 4. A hanger as in claim 3 wherein each said bracket includes tab means adjacent to said slot for crushing the wood of said saw cut when said strap is tightened to form a bearing surface for said strap.
 5. A hanger as in claim 1 wherein each of said joists is metal and each includes a closed aperture at a distance from said girder so that said brackets fit in said apertures. 